Powerful arguments over the risks of nuclear energy

SHEFFIELD Green Party extends its sympathy towards those affected by the earthquake and tsunami and the risk of further suffering as events unfold at the Fukushima nuclear power plant.

The tragic Japanese crisis has reminded the world of just how dangerous nuclear power is. The Green Party is against nuclear, it drains resources away from the pressing need to invest in far more effective and affordable solutions to our energy problems.

We can never guard nuclear power stations against the power of nature, terrorist attacks or human error. The problem of storing radioactive waste for tens of thousands of years has not been solved.

Accidents to nuclear power stations cannot be insured against. Weapons grade nuclear waste materials go missing and can end up in the hands of very dangerous people. Nuclear power is not carbon emission-free. We need a large cut in greenhouse gas emissions now, waiting 10 to 15 years to build new nuclear power stations will be too late.

The Government’s programme to build more nuclear power stations should stop. It is an ill-conceived policy, very expensive and diverts resources away from the urgent need for a massive investment programme in energy efficiency and renewables. Approximately half the Department of Energy and Climate Change budget is spent on nuclear decommissioning. The nuclear industry can only function because of massive public subsidy.

From: Derek Curson, Ennerdale Drive, Elland.

THE Japanese people have suffered greatly over the centuries as a result of actions taken by their arrogant and self-interested rulers.

In my lifetime, they experienced the terror of total war and saw their banks and businesses collapse (in the 1980s and 90s) through wanton greed. Now their very lives are threatened once again by their government’s ill-advised choice of atomic reactor design made back in the 70s.

The Japanese have had the opportunity to improve, modify or update that design in the decades since, but failed miserably in spite of their nation’s chronic susceptibility to the forces of nature. However, to deny ourselves the benefit of a safe source of power from alternative designs, would appear premature. In this country there is zero chance of huge earthquakes and tsunamis occurring co-incidentally. A mix of all generation methods is surely our solution: clean coal, tidal (especially), wind and nuclear.

Those who wish to put all our eggs in the uncertainties of the wind basket should declare their interests. Gilbert & Sullivan might have expressed it: “Their brothers and their sisters, their cousins and their aunts / All having shares in the Wind Mill plants.”